This blog is a forum for Mentor High School Honors English 12 students to engage in book discussions based on free reading books.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a novel that will keep its reader on the edge at all times. The main characters are a father and his young son who are battling the catastrophic event that took place in the world. They are the only two beings left that they know of that is not a cannibal. The father is upset because the boy's mother, also his wife, killed herself after the event took place. This great novel tells the tale of the father and son's journey through the aftermath of the world changing event that took place. Through out the novel, they are hiding from the "bad people" and are in search for what the son calls the "good people". At the end of the novel, the son finds these "good people" that he was searching for. Unfortunately it was with out his father. The son has to face the new challenges of surviving without his father by his side.

Questions

1) In the novel, both main characters are unnamed. Why do you think that is?

2)If you spent the time staying alive with a parent, like the son did, then was forced to move to another family, how would you feel? Would you be open to this change?

7 comments:

1. Maybe the characters are unnamed so the author can't hint at what time period he thinks this event might occur? like, if the kid's name was, I don't know, Jason or something and the dad was something like Paul, (stupid) people might freak out because those are common names right now. If the names were something super futuristic, no one would really care as much. It was probably done to keep the reader guessing and let them know that this is a real possibility without putting a timestamp on it.

2. Losing a parent is always a difficult experience for anyone. But adding the stress of moving to a completely different family adds more stress to someone's situation. This situation would give a person tremendous grief and would leave them crippled with emotional distress.

2. Losing a parent is always a difficult experience for anyone. But adding the stress of moving to a completely different family adds more stress to someone's situation. This situation would give a person tremendous grief and would leave them crippled with emotional distress.

1. The fact that the characters are left without names leaves the reader with a more blurred picture in their mind as they are reading. They are forced to concentrate on what they are reading more to be able to picture the characters. When characters are named, I find that it is easier for us as the reader to give them a face and personality that we feel fits them.

2. I do not believe I would initially be open to this change. It would probably take me years before I was ever open to the family I was forced to move in with. Losing someone you're close with is tough, and just because there are new people willing to take you in and love you does not mean that you will initially, or ever, love them back.